Exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of jazz music in this country, from the time when American bands like the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and the Southern Syncopated Orchestra started visting, influencing local musicians, inspiring local artists, and also altering British society by bringing black and white musicians and audiences closer together. The exhibition brings together paintings, prints, cartoons, textiles, ceramics, cinefilm, instruments and the all-important jazz sound. There are a host of events associated with this exhibition, including tours, talks, musical performances, workshops and more. See https://twotempleplace.org/whats-on for details.

Stuart Mitchell will fill us in on Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography. “In the mid 1800s Talbot laid the foundations of photography and photographic methods,” Stuart explains. “His work is often eclipsed by the more famous Frenchman Louis Daquerre, and both have their place in history, but it was his pioneering work with negative photography for which Talbot is best known.”

Travel back to the Golden Age of the 1920s and 1930s, immerse yourself in how life felt in Britain and how it influenced women, art and design. Inspired by the LTM's Poster Girls exhibition, experience vintage girl power and iconic art movements through curated lectures, workshops and tours. Explore the exhibitions after hours, accompanied by the classic sounds of trio The Susie Qs.

Wilde at Heart
Friday 9th March
7.30–9.30pm
The Tea House Theatre, 139 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HL
Admission: £10
(book by phone on 020 7207 4585 or book online)

A dramatic look at the life, loves and above all at the works of one of the most celebrated literary figures of the 19th century; a man who, in the words of W. B. Yeats, was “the half-finished sketch of a great man”, destroyed by personal flaw and by a hypocritical society in one of its periodic fits of public morality.
The story of Wilde’s life is more dramatic than anything he could possibly have written— “I thought Life was going to be a brilliant comedy. I found it to be a revolting and repellent tragedy.”

“This is the best show I have ever seen about Oscar Wilde”Fenella Fielding

The Candlelight Club:
The Golden Age of Travel
Friday 9th and Saturday 10th March
7pm–12am
A secret London location
Admission: £25 in advance
Dress: Prohibition dandies, swells, gangsters and molls, degenerate aristos and decadent aesthetes, corrupt politicians and the Smart Set In the Know

A 1920s clandestine speakeasy party in a secret London venue lit by candles, with live jazz bands, cabaret and vintage vinylism.

This time we evoke the era of luxury liners—the Art Deco dream of gleaming speed, the adventure of travel, the romance of shipboard life and the opulence of First Class, in an age when the journey itself, recreationally and socially, could be as important as the destination.

The birth of the ocean liner coincided with a rush of emigration across the Atlantic. Early efforts were more about speed than comfort, but soon wealthy shipping magnates competed to fit out their ships with grand staircases and Louis XVI furnishings. Titanic featured such innovations as refrigerators and electric lifts plus running water in every cabin, not to mention three dining rooms, an à la carte restaurant and a Parisian café. Germany's Imperator even hired Georges Escoffier—perhaps the most famous chef in the world at the time—to run the galley. But it was in the 1920s and 1930s that the opulence peaked. By now the ships were aimed squarely at the wealthy—especially monied Americans fleeing Prohibition for some drink-soaked fun in Europe. The Normandie offered a swimming pool, gym, shooting gallery, nightclub, shopping mall, Byzantine chapel, children's playroom complete with merry-go-round and a cinema showing films before general release. A passenger could have his own four-room apartment with dining room and servants' quarters, furnished with tapestries and a grand piano. Passengers could even accessorise with an Hermés clutch bag in the shape of the ship. For the rich and famous it was the only way to travel. Every trip came with a printed passenger list so movers and shakers could see who else was on board, and the piers around the passenger terminals were lined with autograph hunters.

We can't quite match the opulence of the dining room on the Normandie, but we'll have Champagne and nautical cocktails and an optional three course dinner to pre-order. And no ship's biscuits, honest. On board the good ship Candlelight there will be portholes, deck chairs, quoits and dancing to live jazz from the ship's buoyant band the Silver Ghosts, plus cabaret from Champagne Charlie and vintage vinyl spun by DJ Auntie Maureen.

A sing-along around the piano (for once not featuring Tom Carradine!) offering a very broad menu from Cockney standards to American Songbook to Disney, ABBA and film tunes—all lyrics provided. Featuring Luke Meredith on piano. For more info contact Russell Michaels at pianosingalong@hotmail.

NSC presents a tour of the V&A's exhibition Ocean Liners: Speed and Style
Sunday 18th March
2–6pm
The Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2RL
Admission:

Have you ever wondered how the Glorious Committee travel? Was your interest peaked by Greg Taylor's talk on the Lusitania a while back? Well the Victoria and Albert have put an exhibition on so we can share in the opulence of the golden age of ocean-going liners. Adrian Prooth has proposed a perusal round the museum on the 18th of March to see the exhibits and perhaps some tea afterwards.
If there is enough interest he will arrange a group ticket (he thinks it is 10+). See the Facebook event for late-breaking news.

And if you want the full experience the Candlelight Club are putting on an event on the same theme on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th March (see above).

London Hat Week
Thursday 22nd–Wednesday 28th March
10am–10pm
Various locations
Admission: Varies from event to event

A collection of over 90 milinery workshops and hat centred events run in various locations across London, celebrating the art of hats in the city that is home to some of the most talented hat designers in the world. It says here. For the full line-up of events see www.londonhatweek.com/events.

Part of London Hat Week above, a light-hearted annual titfer-centred mass saunter. Whether you make hats or just love wearing them this is your chance to promenade in style with likeminded individuals. As the London Landmarks Half Marathon is taking place this year the usual route is out, so we will be enjoying a new route along the River Thames. Meeting outside Tate Modern, we will start with a backdrop of St Paul’s Cathedral then walk along Bankside, past the Globe Theatre and Southwark Cathedral, finishing at the Scoop near City Hall, in the shadow of Tower Bridge. The walk should take no more than 30 minutes and afterwards you are invited to the nearby LHW Supplier Fair at Guy’s Hospital for some free refreshments (and shopping). No need to book—just come along wearing a hat. Check out a bevvy of NSC types in the video on the homepage: www.londonhatweek.com.

Frances Mitchell will be following up her husband's talk from March with a discourse on vanished Victorian trades, inspired by a photo in the Museum of London featuring one of her ancestors.

The Candlelight Club:
Sakura in Old Tokyo
Friday 6th and Saturday 7th April
7pm–12am
A secret London location
Admission: £25 in advance
Dress: Prohibition dandies, swells, gangsters and molls, degenerate aristos and decadent aesthetes, corrupt politicians and the Smart Set In the Know

A 1920s clandestine speakeasy party in a secret London venue lit by candles, with live jazz bands, cabaret and vintage vinylism.

April is the festival of cherry blossom (sakura) in Japan: acres of fruitless trees are planted just for their beauty at this time, and hanami blossom-viewing parties are popular. In the 1920s this love of nature and tradition mingled with a surge in modernisation and social change—women suddenly had more freedom, the urban young embraced Western fashion, Art Deco, jazz—to create a pulsing hybrid style, visible in the movies made at the time where new and old coexist in clothing, buildings and the problems people face. We'll be projecting some of these flicks at our party.

At our party there will be live music from the Waruli Otoko Swing Orchestra, and presiding over the revelry will be cabaret host Champagne Charlie. When the band aren't playing DJ Auntie Maureen will be spinning vintage vinyl into the night.

One aspect of Western culture that the Japanese readily embraced was the cocktail, an enthusiasm that surged after the war, to the point where, according to modern bartending legend Kazuo Uyeda, "you could find a Martini shaker in every house and a Martini glass in every hand". The Japanese art of bartending developed along its own lines, with the culture's characteristic attention to detail, respect for procedure and appreciation of the subtle stimulation of all the senses. We'll be offering a bespoke cocktail menu for the evening inspired by the Land of the Rising Sun.

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

The NSC Annual Punt, Picnic and Plunge
Saturday 21st April
From 11am
Meeting at the Bear Inn, embarking at the Magdelen Bridge Boathouse
Admission: About £20 contribution towards punt hire plus money for food an drink

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” The Glorious Committee invite you to join us for the annual Club Picnic, Punt and Plunge in Oxford. We will meet at the oldest pub in Oxford, The Bear Inn, for a sharpener and to admire their tie collection (sadly closed to new entrants) and then make our way to our old friends at the Magdalen Bridge Boathouse: we’ve been punting with them for over ten years now and they keep letting us come back. We’ll punt upriver, stop off for a shared picnic, listen to the complaints of those doing the punting and assure them we’d help out but with this back problem and you know what it’s like at this time of year for my knees and you’re doing such a good job and then punt back for a night of revels in Oxford.
There will of course be the Sweepstake. A pound to enter and you get a number as does everyone else in the game. If you have the number of the person who falls in you sweep the pot! No one knows anyone else’s number other than an incorruptible member of the Glorious Committee so you can’t push anyone in to get rich quick. Someone falls in each and every year so there’s everything to play for.
You’ll need to bring cash—there is no cash point near the Boat House and they take no cards—for punting which will be about £20 a head, tasty food and drink and some coins for drinks in the pub. See the Facebook event.

The Earl of Essex will intrigue us with a lecture entitled Lisbon: City of spies (1939-45).

The Tweed Run
Saturday 5th May
From 11am
Location and route to be revealed
Admission: £30
Dress: Smart vintage, tweed or otherwise

The tenth annual Tweed Run, an idea that is now replicated in many other cities around the world. The idea being simply to dress impeccably and cycle at a leisurely pace acround town en masse, and preferably on vintage bicycles. Along the route there is a stop for tea, a stop for a picnic lunch and usually an after-party. Tickets are released on Thursday 1st March at noon (and doubtless will be sold out five minutes later). The route ends in Clerkenwell at the Cycle Revolution Festival for an awards ceremony and afterparty, for which tickets are sometimes sold separately. The route is generally kept a secret and revealed to ticket holders nearer the time. See www.tweedrun.com for details.

A looosely vintage festival with seven stages offering a diverse musical line up from gypsy swing and jazz to Balkan beats, dubstep DJs and both traditional and electro swing. This year's bill includes Slamboree, Electric Swing Circus, King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys, Swing Punks and returning Swingamajig veterans the 16-piece swing band, Jim Wynn Swing Orchestra.There will also be burlesque and cabaret, circus acts and magicians, street art and walkabout performance.
Swingamajig has once again teamed up with Birmingham dance school The Swing Era to run a series of Lindy Hop and solo jazz workshops the day before the festival, when there will also be an aerial circus skills workshop. The different ticket options cover these Saturday workshops, and those taking part get reduce rates on tickets for the festival itself on Sunday. See swingamajig.co.uk.

The Candlelight Club's May Ball
Saturday 12th May
7pm–12am
A secret London location
Admission: £30 in advance
Dress: Prohibition dandies, swells, gangsters and molls, degenerate aristos and decadent aesthetes, corrupt politicians and the Smart Set In the Know

A 1920s clandestine speakeasy party in a secret London venue lit by candles, with live jazz bands, cabaret and vintage vinylism.

This time it's a special ball to celebrate the rising of the sap: relive the romance of the Jazz Age at the a special ball, in a long-forgotten, candlelit hall in east London where a host of flappers and Bright Young Things will frolic in two rooms of entertainment.

In Ballroom get ready to glide and shimmy to live music from the Swing'It Dixieband. Dancing along to the band will be Charleston dance troupe the Gatsby Girls, showing you how it’s done. When the band aren’t playing DJ Holly from The Bee's Knees will be spinning vintage platters into the night.

There is also a three-course dinner menu to preorder, or the option to reserve tables with Champagne, plus a menu of bar snacks and sharing platters to order on the night.

Meanwhile in the Cabaret Lounge there will be another bar, and live music from the Volstead Orchestra in the early evening, followed by two variety shows hosted by the Lord of Cabaret Misrule Champagne Charlie, featuring burlesque from Miss Betsy Rose and Weimar juggling from Ulrike Storch.

Want to know what the future holds for you? Our fortune tellers Foxglove and Lucius will be on hand to advise.

Guests receive an email a few days before the event revealing the secret location.

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

Please bring your tweed-clad children for a weekend by the seaside, enjoying British weather, ice cream, playing on Romney Sands, flying kites, toasting marshmallows over campfires and jaunting on the Hythe-Dymchurch light railway. Please book your tent/caravan pitch or holiday cabin now, as it is a small campsite and might book up. Dogs welcome.

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

Our guest speaker will be Kathryn Best, who will give us some in-the-field insight into ancient Thebes, now Luxor, the 3000 Egyptologists and archaeologists digging here, former residents Agatha Christie and Florence Nightingale and the importance of Thebes as part of any respectable gentleman or gentlewoman's classical education and Grand Tour.

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

The Chap magazine's annual celebration of the Chappist ethos, with games that reward languid elegance and foppish, workshy guile. Effort or competitive spirit are frowned upon while creative cheating is positively encouraged. The programme will include familiar acts of buffoonery such as Tea Pursuit, Umbrella Jousting, Butler Baiting and Aunt Avoidance, as well as new challenges, to ensure there is no chance of contestants preparing for the event. Any form of training is frowned upon by the judges—the only preparations contestants should consider are within the confines of their tailor’s fitting room. Picnics can be brought although food will be for sale and ready-made picnics can also be pre-ordered. Bourne & Hollingsworth will be running bars within the arena, and their stormtroopers will be confiscating alcohol at the gates, although New Sheridan Club Members will as usual regard it as a matter of honour to find imaginative ways to smuggle booze in.

Seth Thévoz will talk to us about Club Government: How the Early Victorian World was Ruled from London Clubs, the subject of his latest book. "‘Club Government’ was a fixation of the mid-nineteenth century," Seth explains. "Press accounts, diarists, and writers such as Dickens, Disraeli and Trollope all advanced the view that key political decisions were taken behind closed doors, in the clubs of St James’s. Yet despite Club Government being referenced in most major histories of the period, the topic has never before enjoyed a full-length study. Making use of previously-sealed club archives, and adopting a broad range of analytical techniques, this book seeks to deepen our understanding of the distinctive and novel impact of Club Government on British politics in this period. The book concludes that while historians may have exaggerated the clubs’ reputation for interfering in elections, they have hugely underestimated the extent of club influence on ‘high politics’ in Westminster, and more importantly, on the shaping of modern British political culture."

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

One of the most famous vintage events in the country, the Goodwood Revival recreates the golden era of Goodwood Motor Circuit, between 1948 and 1966. This event, a theatrical and sporting drama, assembles the most significant racing cars and motorcycles along with legendary drivers and riders from the past and stars of today. There are also a host of eating and drinking options, a vintage market place and fashion shows.

Dr Michael Wetherburn, a history lecturer at Imperial College, will open our eyes to Forgery, the Nazis and the British Royals: The Most Spectacular 1930s Story You’ve Never Heard Of, presenting the case that Charles E. Bedaux, flamboyant explorer, big game hunter and millionaire pioneer of labour measurement in business, who was friend to both the Windsors and members of the Nazi party, was in fact a spy.

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.

Philip Hancock will offer us The Vindication of Christmas.
"With its title taken from a 1652 pamphlet distributed as part of a campaign against the parliamentarian government of Oliver Cromwell, this talk considers the Puritan war on Christmas of the 17th century and beyond. Effectively banned in Scotland and the English Commonwealth between 1645 and 1660, the celebration of Christmas became a site of not only religious, but political and social struggle both here and in the fledgling USA. Something that, as we shall see, continues to have repercussions to this day."

Dance progressive partnered dancing to a strict-tempo ten-piece orchestra and a selection of pre-war records of slow foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango, rumba, Jive and Charleston. Free ballroom dance lesson for absolute beginners from 7pm to 7.30 pm. Candlelit tables and chairs for all guests, a balcony area with tables for those who don’t choose to dance, and four or five male and female taxi dancers available free of charge for those who do. The venue is dry, but free tea and coca cola is provided, and guests may smuggle in their own drinks if they are discreet. Tickets are £10 online or £15 on the door. We have a large wooden dance floor and are located in beautiful Fitzroy Square, London W1. In the same building (the Indian YMCA) the excellent in-house canteen does a set vegetarian three course meal for just £8 from 7pm to 9 pm. Dress code is strictly black tie and evening dress only, and we have sold out for the past four dances. Activities include a quickstep bus stop and ten most glamorously dressed women able to get around the floor doing a slow waltz competition. Any questions, please phone George Tudor-Hart on 020 8542 1490. For more details see the Facebook group.